If you loved True Detective, this 87% Rotten Tomatoes nordic noir on Netflix is a must-watch

True Detective fans know the feeling. You start a new show hoping it’ll be as gritty and intelligent, but most of them fall short. That raw storytelling, haunting atmosphere, and deeply flawed characters make True Detective (especially the first season) so special. It’s hard to find elsewhere. But there is a hidden gem on Netflix that just might scratch that itch. And it’s not American, it’s Finnish.

Bordertown, also called Sorjonen in Finland, is a show that might fly under the radar for most global viewers. It’s got all the good ingredients that fans crave. There is murder, moodiness, complex detectives, and chilling small-town secrets. And with an impressive 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s not just a random pick from the Netflix crime catalog.

So if you’ve been missing that mix of crime and character depth, Bordertown could be your next binge. It doesn’t try to be True Detective, and that’s exactly why it works. It’s something darker, colder, and in its own way, even more intimate.

True Detective fans will love Bordertown, here's why

Kari Sorjonen is the main man in Bordertown. He’s no Rust Cohle, but he’s got his own kind of brilliance. Kari is a socially awkward, high-functioning detective who moves his family to a sleepy Finnish border town hoping for peace and quiet. But, of course, he doesn’t get it. What he does get is a string of gruesome murders, each more twisted than the last.

Kari Sorjonen has a really peculiar way of solving murders. And that sets him apart from the usual TV detectives. Kari retreats into his own mind. He zones out or physically steps away from everyone to visualize the crime. He pieces things together by imagining the victim's last moments. He replays the scenarios in his head like a mental movie.

Others see scattered clues, but Kari connects invisible threads, using logic, intuition, and a near-photographic memory to crack cases that seem impossible. His methods may look odd, but they work, and that’s what makes him so fascinating to watch.

The crimes in Bordertown are more than just crimes. They reveal things about the town, the people, and the brokenness we try to hide. The cases unfold slowly and are layered with emotions. Each mystery spans multiple episodes, so it gives you time to sit with the tension. There is no jump-scare; it's just cerebral and creepy at times.

True Detective used the bayous of Louisiana or the dusty stretches of California as characters in themselves, Bordertown brings you to the icy beauty of Finland. Snowy forests, lakes, and eerie isolation add to the show’s haunting tone. It’s a whole different vibe, but that cold stillness has the same unsettling effect you felt watching detectives stare into the abyss in the HBO show.

And then there's the emotional part of it. Kari is solving murders all while trying to hold his family together. His wife is recovering from brain cancer, his daughter is trying to adjust to a new town, and his own mind is always racing. That balance of personal and professional struggle is very True Detective. The pain, the guilt, the obsession is all there.

So, if you’re tired of surface-level crime shows, Bordertown is a deep dive into the soul of a detective. It’s methodical, thoughtful, and utterly absorbing. And much like True Detective, it trusts its audience to stay with the slow burn because the payoff is worth it.

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